1. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to the field of industrial control automation. More particularly, the present invention pertains to providing technical support over a network for an industrial control system.
2. Description of Related Art
Industrial control systems (ICSs) are often provided technical support by vendors of equipment used in the control systems. As new equipment becomes available, including hardware, software or firmware, it would be useful for both the control system user/owner and the vendor if the vendor were able to automatically suggest to an end user, from a remote location (the vendor's facility), specific upgrades to the existing equipment, as opposed to for example, simply providing periodically end users with a catalog of the latest available equipment. To do this for only the equipment that the vendor originally provided would require only that the vendor keep track of the latest equipment the vendor provided to the end user. But it is also desirable for a vendor to be able to suggest to an end user that equipment provided by some other vendor be replaced by the vendor's new equipment.
Today, industrial control systems can often be interrogated to determine what equipment is being used. Thus, a vendor can learn what equipment is being used in an ICS even when the equipment was provided by another vendor.
What is needed is a system for interrogating an ICS from a remote location to learn what equipment is being used, and in case of an alternative to a piece equipment being available, to suggest to the owner/operator of the ICS that the piece of equipment be replaced.